Inspirational Ingenuity: Yes Students Wow

Ever wondered how your business can get ‘up close and personal’ with your customers? Clean Ads, last night’s winners of the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme Oral Presentation Regional finals have just the ticket for businesses to, literally, reach out and touch their potential customers.

The Westlake Boys High School-based team has developed an innovative concept of toilet roll advertising. This product was one among several products showcasing the ingenuity of North Shore Youth, including a vibrating pillow alarm (Bellizzimo, Rangitoto College) a multi-functional Herb dispenser (Kinetic, Long Bay College) and a video-based training aide for teachers (Epic, Northcote College).

The Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) is a school-based business programme which runs internationally and in New Zealand secondary schools at years 12/13. Fostering the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, YES provides and opportunity to form a company, create a business plan and produce goods or services to sell. The Oral presentations form 30% of the total YES score and provide a great opportunity for companies to practice their business presentation skills.

Terry Hoskins, CEO of Enterprise North Shore who facilitate the North Shore YES programme said there existed “some truly inspirational business talent evident in this year’s students… 2009 looks to be a resounding YES success and the economic future extremely promising”.

Other winners from the night included 2nd place Roundabout Dog Collar from Orewa College who’ve developed a dog collar and lead all in one, as well as 3rd place Axiom, also from Westlake Boys High School, who have developed Educational Software with a distinct New Zealand flavour.

Students learn all aspects of running a business including budgeting, decision making, identifying and managing risk, market research, marketing, selling, and annual financial reporting.